UPDATE: Ralph Lauren Misses Q3 Expectations, Shares Drop

Shares of

tumbled more than 9% in pre-market trading after the company reported weaker-than-expected results for its fiscal third quarter. The New York-based company posted a quarterly profit of $215 million, or $2.41 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $237 million, or $2.57 per share. Its revenue climbed to $2.03 billion from $2.02 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $2.50 per share on revenue of $2.09 billion. Gross profit margin narrowed 120 basis points to 57.0%, while operating margin fell 110 basis points to 15.5%. Ralph Lauren ended the quarter with $1.4 billion in cash and investments, versus $1.4 billion in cash and investments at the end of the third quarter. During the quarter, Ralph Lauren repurchased around 0.5 million shares of Class A Common Stock. For the fourth quarter, Ralph Lauren expects sales, excluding currency translations, to increase at a mid-single-digit rate. The company now projects full-year sales growth of 4%, excluding currency translations, versus earlier outlook for 5% to 7% growth. Ralph Lauren raised its quarterly cash dividend by 11% to $0.50 per share. "The resilience of the third quarter's operating profitability is a testament to the strong, consistent operational discipline of our global teams," said Jacki Nemerov, President and Chief Operating Officer. "Although our sales were below the expectations we had set, we navigated through the volatile global marketplace by controlling the controllable and delivered an operating margin at the high end of our outlook. Foreign exchange and global consumer spending remain unpredictable, and we are planning our business accordingly." Ralph Lauren shares dipped 9.77% to $154.15 in pre-market trading.